He will place a new commemorative bell weighing 9801 kilograms on Prague’s Rohan Island. The weight of the bell symbolically refers to 9801 bells, which were taken from the protectorate in the summer of 1942 to Hamburg’s war factories. The Nazis took them from a place on Rohan Island, which was called the cemetery of bells. It will be the second heaviest bell in the Czech Republic, the first being the famous Sigismund from St. Vitus Cathedral.
The mentioned bell will be unveiled in August, 80 years after the last ship with requisitioned bells sailed from Prague’s Manin to Hamburg. People belong to him in the public collection, which is already more than two thirds full. The amount needed for the successful completion of the project is now estimated at 12 million crowns.
More than two thousand donors have already contributed to the collection. The Sanctus Castulus association is behind the project called the Bell Initiative # 9801. “I am pleased that this idea also appealed to the general public. The casting of a physical bell is good news for everyone. A tangible proof that our goal is succeeding,” says the chairman of the association, Ondřej Boháč.
The installation of the bell is part of a wider transformation of Rohan Island. New residential, as well as administrative and commercial areas are to be created here. It is estimated that 11,000 people will live and work in the new city district. The project will also include a kilometer-long coastal promenade, which will be followed by a park.
“The bell in the context of the restored Vltava island and the emerging coastal promenade on the island will be the centerpiece of the genius loci of this area,” said Luděk Sekyra from the Sekyra Group, which is building on it.
The bell that will be displayed on the island was cast in Austria Innsbruck. The whole process, including preparation, took several months. The craftsmen first created a so-called fake bell from clay and wax, which is an exact model of the future bell on a real scale. Then they cast a real bell into the mold. The specific type of bronze is melted for several hours before pouring into the mold until it reaches the required temperature for a successful casting.
The bell-shaped in the mold then cooled for several weeks. Eventually, they added his heart to the bell, which is made of iron. The Rohan bell is then specific in its mantle, which on the one hand is symbolically composed of shards of bells, which were removed from there in 1942.